How Stress Impacts Productivity
According to the 2022 workplace health report, 60% of UK professionals self-reported their stress levels to be either moderate or moderate-to-high.
78% of participants felt that their workload was a primary source of stress, while 28% stated that high levels of stress had impacted their productivity.
It’s important to note that a certain level of stress is necessary for growth and development, but what is stress?
What is stress?
To understand how to reduce stress, we need to delve into the inner-workings of the body.
The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) is a control system that acts unconsciously and controls bodily functions such as heart rate, digestion and rate of breathing. There are two further subdivisions of the ANS: the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) and the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS).
The PNS is also referred to as the rest-and-digest system. It acts to conserve energy and slows down the heart rate whilst preparing the body for digestion.?
The SNS is commonly known as the fight-or-flight system. It increases alertness in response to stress or danger.?
This leads us onto a definition for stress:
“Stress is the body’s response to physical, mental, or emotional pressure.”
Where can stress come from?
Broadly speaking, a ‘stressor’ (the stimulus that evokes a reaction through interacting with the body) can come from various sources:
?Experiencing too many stressors can lead to stress symptoms such as:
Your capacity for stress
Each person has their own unique capacity for stress.
Taking on too many stressors at once or one/two major stressors for a prolonged period can cause the battery to deplete, causing us to run on empty. This is when the issues mentioned above begin to arise!
In the 1990s, social psychologist Roy Baumeister changed how we view the mind and its capacity for stress through an experiment.?
His goal was to deplete willpower through providing temptation and assess its impact on tasks such as problem solving.?
There were 67 adults, a plate of freshly baked cookies and a plate of radishes. The adults entered the cookie-scented room. They could smell the cookies and see them placed on the table.?
They then found out that only half of the room could eat the cookies whilst the other half - had to eat the radishes. They had no choice, so the radish-eaters became disappointed, thus taking 'some juice away from their battery'.
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They were then asked to solve a stress-inducing complex problem (which turned out to be unsolvable). These were the results:
The cookie-eaters gave the stressful and unsolvable problem more attempts, whilst persevering for longer.
What caused the difference? The radish-eaters had to resist the temptation of cookies (a stressor) before attempting to solve the unsolvable problem (another stressor). They had less capacity to manage their stressors.
This experiment taught us that:
So we now know that the impact of a stressor is dependent on its magnitude, but how do we find the optimal amount that we can manage?
How much stress can I take on?
Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi, a pioneer in the field of positive psychology came up with a conceptual tool.
We can find the optimal dosage of stress in the top right-hand corner. This occurs when you take on a task that is just above your skill set that allows you to enter your "flow" state.
A task too challenging for your skill level can cause experiences of apathy, worry and anxiety. However, a task that is insufficiently challenging for your skill level can cause experiences of apathy, boredom and relaxation.
Ideally, it is recommended to fill our day with around 2-3 tasks that allow us to operate in our “flow state”.?
Champion Health’s data in The Workplace Health Report: 2022, also indicated that 56% agreed that there was a “sweet spot” for stress that enabled them to thrive. Effective stress management is essential if we wish to maintain our health whilst pushing productivity and progress in our careers.?
Methods of rest
What should you do if you begin to experience symptoms of excessive stress?
You should rest, which is anything that helps to conserve your energy whilst slowing down heart rate and your breath. Ways to relieve stress include:
Sleep is one of the most effective ways to rest.
In 2011, basketball players at Stanford University were asked to maintain their sleep routine for 2-4 weeks as part of a research study in which their basketball-specific KPIs were taken.?
They were subsequently asked to get a minimum of 10 hours sleep for 6-7 weeks. After this period, they were tested again. The results indicated that they were 4% faster; had 9% better accuracy on free-throws and 3 pointers; and that they had faster reaction times.
The recommended duration for sleep is 7-9 hours. To further improve sleep quality, limiting exposure to blue light from your devices before sleeping can also be helpful. Blue light disrupts your ability to prepare for sleep as it suppresses the release of melatonin, the hormone that makes you feel sleepy. It is recommended by the Sleep Foundation to turn off electronics 2-3 hours before bedtime.
Above all, it is important to remember that we all have a unique relationship with stress. Support is out there, whether it’s from family, friends or colleagues. If you need some advice please feel free to get in touch with us at Pharmica!